Page 319 of Every Almost

The galley was half-full. The morning shift was there, and the room echoed with the clatter of trays.

For a moment, nobody noticed.

Then somebody did.

Maren looked, and her shimmer brightened, looking back down at her plate with a small private smile.

Selowen inclined her head, once, acknowledging something she found beautiful without a need to comment on.

Orion, at the far table, went still over his datapad before smiling at them both while closing away the datapad.

"Come on," Charlie murmured beside her.

They got trays. Borran turned from the counter and took one look at the two of them. He put an extra Gula Cake on Charlie's tray without a word and turned back to his ovens before either of them could see the rest of his face.

They sat down. Together.

"Oh, holy shit," Kess said from three seats down. Reyna had been waiting for this.

"What?" said Tavi and Maren, at exactly the same time.

Kess took a sip of her tea, eyeing Reyna. Reyna looked over at her and smiled. She watched Kess attempt to go back to being entirely neutral but fooled no one.

"It's just good," she said to Tavi and Maren. "It'sreallygood."

Reyna ate with one hand because she was still holding Charlie's with the other, and she didn't want to take it back.

Breakfast ended soon after. The shift changed, trays cleared, and crews peeled off toward their stations.

Charlie walked her as far as the junction where their own paths would split, the lift to the Bridge one way, the long corridor down to Engineering the other.

"So," Charlie said.

"So."

"I go be an engineer. You go be a captain."

"That is how this is going to have to work," Reyna quipped, a smile tugging from the corner of her mouth.

Charlie nodded in agreement, but did not let go of Reyna's hand.

"Charlie."

"Yeah?"

"You have to let go now." Reyna watched Charlie look down at their hands, then back up at Reyna.

"I know. I'm aware of the mechanics." She didn't let go of her hand. "I'm just choosing to ignore them."

Reyna felt a smile spread across her face before she could do anything about it. "I have a call to make this morning," she said, and watched Charlie remember. "It will be handled," Reyna making sure the promise echoed in her tone again. "Now, go build me something, genius."

Charlie smiled. "I'll see what I can do."

Charlie lifted Reyna's hand, kissed the back of it, and finally let it go. "Go run your ship, Captain."

CHARLIE

Engineering was exactly the way Charlie had left it. It had only been a little over eighteen hours since she was last in here, but it felt like days, weeks even. which was a relief. She assumed that was because everything else in her life had changed overnight.